16 May 28th - June 3rd, 2026 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | ALWAYS IN YOUR FEED. FOLLOW US Musical Mashup The Phoenix Symphony closes its season with ‘Stravinsky X Kendrick Lamar.’ BY GERI KOEPPEL F or the third year in a row, the Phoenix Symphony will close out its season on May 29 and 30 with a classical/rap fusion, this time blending the music of Igor Stravinsky’s ballet masterpiece “Petrushka” with Kendrick Lamar’s multiple award-winning album “DAMN.” “Stravinsky X Kendrick Lamar” is “the most ambitious of my fusion works because of the complexity and the diffi- culty of the original material” by both artists, says Steve Hackman, the visionary composer, conductor, producer, DJ, arranger, songwriter, singer and pianist. He also created “Beethoven X Beyoncé,” which was last season’s final performance, and “The Resurrection Mixtape” — brought here in 2024 — which fused Mahler with Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur, among many other classical-meets-modern shows. The symphony also hosted Hackman’s “Brahms v. Radiohead” in March 2022. The parallels between the artists and the works in this composition are uncanny, according to Hackman. Both works share a narrative device of a show within a show and similar themes, the works and artists were groundbreaking and highly successful in their times, and Stravinsky and Lamar even share a birthday, 105 years apart. Works provide ideal pairing “Petrushka” takes place at a Russian festival during Mardi Gras, where a puppet master brings three puppets to life with a magic flute. “DAMN.” features a gunshot that introduces an alternate reality. In “Petrushka,” the characters in the ballet are puppets — in a jealous love triangle, no less — who feel human emotions, which happen to be the same ones as the track names on “DAMN.”: “HUMBLE.,” “PRIDE.,” “PRIDE.,” “LUST.,” “LOYALTY.” and so on. Hackman says his original idea for fusing Stravinsky and Lamar was to use “The Rite of Spring” and “To Pimp a Butterfly.” But then he saw an opportunity. “I started to realize, ‘Wow, “Petrushka” and “DAMN.” not only share the same crucial narrative device, … but I think I could arrange them chronologi- cally. I think I could make it work that they actually go in order, intertwined,’” Hackman says. “So I pivoted to this pairing.” Incidentally, although “Stravinsky X Kendrick Lamar” is a new show, “DAMN.” was released on April 14, 2017, during President Donald Trump’s first term, and Hackman wrote this composi- tion in 2018. After it came out, “DAMN.” was a phenomenon, earning a Pulitzer Kendrick Lamar during the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Getty Images) >> p 17 ▼ Music
